Werner Wants Term Limit for Education Minister

Amidst repeated calls from teachers and other civil society activists nationwide for his resignation, Education Minister George K. Werner has called for term limits for ministers of Education, Health and Public Works based on contracts and nationally agreed agenda.

According to Werner, ministers of education, health and public works play essential roles and should not necessarily be at the will and pleasure of the President.Appearing on the Capitol Fm Breakfast show, Minister Werner indicated, “I believe that positions like Education, Health, Public Works, should be tenured positions based on contracts and should not necessarily be at the pleasure and will of the president”.“If you give somebody tenure to manage your money why don’t you give somebody tenure to increase the capacity of your people? Finding somebody that presents a nationally agreed agenda like the Governor of the Central Bank will help in national development drive,” Werner said.In defense of his recent statement of ‘ridicule’ of protestors calling for his resignation posted on social media, Werner noted: “the least I can do is to mock people who are insulting me”.“I will not insult you but I will make fun of what you are doing to hurt me and the system. “You have your right to protest things but mutual respect is part of democratic values so you cannot come and insult me and then think that your rights are more important than mine,” he said.He stressed that for too long resources have been spent on workshops, stakeholders meetings, roads, square and triangular tables with not enough implementations.“Too much talking, we have to act at some point and we are now acting positively for the betterment of children and the educational sector”, he noted.